Worst week ever for the richest people on Earth

A few days ago, Donald Trump boasted of success in the economy and finance. Yet, the collapse of the stock indices put him in an embarrassing situation, Bloomberg notes. Super-rich, who lost billions of dollars in one day, were harmed, too.

The turbulent events in the US stock market broke the longest growth in its history and dealt a severe blow to members of all lists of America's richest people. On Monday, the fall turned into a real collapse. Suffice it to say that the Dow Jones index lost a record 1175 points in a day! Billionaires have become poorer by 114 billion dollars as a result of the collapse of stock indexes on February 5. Friday was a little easier, but the loss of billionaires that day amounted to 68.5 billion dollars.

Throughout January, members of the Top 500 list of the world's richest people, compiled by Bloomberg, were in high spirits in anticipation of the solid money that Donald Trump's tax reform should bring to them. The collapse of the stock indices returned billionaires from to the ground.

Chairman of the board of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., Warren Buffett, lost $ 5.1 billion on Monday according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. At the time of opening trades in the morning, he had a little more than $ 90 billion, but already by lunchtime the number declined by 5.5%, to less than 85 billion.

The events of Monday once again prove how difficult and ungrateful the forecasts on the securities market are. For his foresight and experience, Buffett is called the Oracle of Omaha. Yet, even such However, even such a reputation cannot pay off in 100% of cases. Berkshire is the main shareholder of Wells Fargo & Co., which became the record-breaker of the S&P 500 for losses. Shares of the financial company decreased by 9.2%. The shares of Berkshire itself fell by almost 6%.

The second largest loss is the founder and owner of Facebook Inc. Mark Zuckerberg. Shares of Facebook decreased by 5%, and he as a result became poorer by $ 3.6 billion.

The third place is taken by the founder and owner of Amazon.com Inc. Jeff Bezos. Shares of Amazon fell 2.8%. The capital of the richest man of the planet has decreased by $ 3.3 billion and now amounts to $ 116.4 billion.

Owners of Alphabet Inc. Larry Page and Sergey Brin lost $ 2.3 billion on Monday. Shares of Alphabet, the parent company of Google, fell 5%.

Bill Gates, who occupies the second line in the list of the richest people in the world according to Forbes magazine, lost less than most of his colleagues. His condition declined "only" by $ 1.5 billion, and was $ 90.6 billion as of Monday evening.

The top ten biggest losers include Oracle owner Larry Ellison and three heirs and heirs of Walmart. In total, the losses of the top ten on Monday amounted to $ 28.6 billion.

Of course, the longest growth of the securities market in US history brought all of them much more than they lost yesterday. For example, Jeff Bezos this year became richer by $ 20 billion, Warren Buffett - by 4.75 billion, and Mark Zuckerberg - by 5.5 billion.

The agency Bloomberg sharply criticized Donald Trump, noting that his "boasting of financial and economic success" against the background of yesterday's collapse does not seem very appropriate. Further, Bloomberg quotes a statement of the White House where it is said that the president is concerned with "fundamental indicators in the long term that remain very high." It is about the growth of the economy, the reduction of unemployment and the increase in the salaries of Americans.